Scottish Power - Boiler Care/Cover - AVOID!!!

watson1312 · 12 February 2018 at 6:03PM

Hello!
Just a quick message here, as I don't have time to recount the full details. (That would probably take me a full day in itself!)
I'm wondering if any of you readers have any experiences of Scottish Power's so called Boiler Care? I'm growing increasingly frustrated on behalf of my poor Mum who's been covered with them for several years now. Just after Christmas '17 she found that the boiler had a small leak from one of the connections inside and called up to report it in good faith that she'd be in good hands.....That's the reason that we take out cover isn't it......In the event of something happening that we are 'covered'......It seems not!! I won't go into all the details but to put it in short she's been messed about, misinformed, kept on hold etc etc....ultimately being left without any hot water or central heating for the best part of 3 weeks now. (The engineer decided that the boiler had to be switched off and that they'd be able to continue the repair when the correct PARTS arrived......Hmmmmmm......)
Well, It didn't take much online research to find out that this is the usual for Scottish Power Boiler Cover, there are countless stories on many forums from disgruntled customers all venting their frustrations after having to deal with the same set of shananigans! usually resulting in them being left without hot water and heating (sometimes for weeks) and then being told (after finally getting through to speak to someone) that the engineers are 'waiting for parts!!!!' More waiting....more phone calls.....to be told the same.....and repeat......
My Mum is in her early 70's and is very passive, it takes an awful lot to wind her up, but she's naturally getting to the end of her tether and feels very let down by a service that she's paid a lot of money into over the years.
After reading through some of the stories that others have shared from their experiences I don't have any confidence that the engineer who examined the boiler even has much of a clue.....I'm not confident that it's in good hands. Several stories where people got so sick of the waiting that they resorted to bringing in a local plumber to get a second opinion, only to find that quite often it was a simple fix that's left the local plumber baffled as to why the SP Engineer would be sending off for these elusive 'parts'
If having the money to call someone in for a second opinion wasn't an obstacle then that's what I'd certainly be doing! I have absolutely no faith in this so called cover, and judging by other peoples stories I can't see it being resolved any time soon.
Well this has turned out to be quite lengthy after all! I had to vent!
Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences? I'd be very interested to hear.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any info/suggestions.

durbanboy · 13 February 2018 at 3:03PM

:shocked:I'm in a similar position
We've had cover for a few years now and when the boiler stopped working on the 27/12/17, we called them out and a engineer attended. He duly noted how good he was amf that he had fixed the boiler without requiring parts, therefore saving me from having my premium increased :shocked
Inevitably, the boiler broke down again, and my wife called up as o wad at work and insisted the engineer returned that evening.
Apprently he flounced through the door, declaring. "It needs parts, it needs parts" :mad:
Anyway, cut a long story short, nobody turns up the 29th, I call SP on the 30th to complain, ask agent to call me back as line is bad..no call back.
I then get a call from the Parts dept, who inform me that the parts won't be available until 04/01/18.
So, with the prospect of no hot water and no solution from SP, I called a local plumber, who promptly fitted an immersion heating element to the. Hot water cylinder and then at least I could have hot water to cleanse myself (medical condition requring high levels of cleaning)
The SP engineers leaves us 3x 2kw fan heaters to stop us freezing (note to all: having had the the house heavily insulated, walls and ceilings, it transpires that the inside of the house was actually colder than the outside ambient temp and that of inside the fridge :huh)
The "Super Engineer" returns and shows me the corroded thermostat connection he missed 1st time around and replaced it with a new one, and we have heating.... It took 3 days to re-heat the house :mad:

So the case handler contacts us and acknowledges failings and offers £40. My wife advised him that was not acceptable and he should look at it again
4 weeks later I contact them, receive an apology for not getting back tu us and an increased offer of £60, which in my opinion, is derisory. The case handler, Brian, stayed that is the full and final offer. I request deadlock and Brian has the almost perverse pleasure of telling me that Scottish Power Care Cover is an unregulated product so doesn't have an Alternative Dispute Resolution service such as the Ombudsman Services.

What would the legal eagles on the forum suggest or advise on using the Email Claims process

Cost incurred by me
Plumber call out and fitting of immersion heater £200 (bought the part myself)
Additional electricity consumption est £55
Less Gas not used £18 rest
Material detriment total £233
Pain and suffering, incalculable, but lets be reasonable and say £67, just to round it up to £300. ( Am I short selling my issue, as it is not entirely about the money, but would hate to loose unnecessarily and incurr the good natured wrath of MSE'ers :rotfl::money::beer:

PS AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. A good local plumber will cost you less in the long run based on the fact of paying SP £600 in total over 5 yrs and receiving pie service from them:eek::T

Scottish_Power · 14 February 2018 at 10:31AM

watson1312 wrote: »

Hello!
Just a quick message here, as I don't have time to recount the full details. (That would probably take me a full day in itself!)
I'm wondering if any of you readers have any experiences of Scottish Power's so called Boiler Care? I'm growing increasingly frustrated on behalf of my poor Mum who's been covered with them for several years now. Just after Christmas '17 she found that the boiler had a small leak from one of the connections inside and called up to report it in good faith that she'd be in good hands.....That's the reason that we take out cover isn't it......In the event of something happening that we are 'covered'......It seems not!! I won't go into all the details but to put it in short she's been messed about, misinformed, kept on hold etc etc....ultimately being left without any hot water or central heating for the best part of 3 weeks now. (The engineer decided that the boiler had to be switched off and that they'd be able to continue the repair when the correct PARTS arrived......Hmmmmmm......)
Well, It didn't take much online research to find out that this is the usual for Scottish Power Boiler Cover, there are countless stories on many forums from disgruntled customers all venting their frustrations after having to deal with the same set of shananigans! usually resulting in them being left without hot water and heating (sometimes for weeks) and then being told (after finally getting through to speak to someone) that the engineers are 'waiting for parts!!!!' More waiting....more phone calls.....to be told the same.....and repeat......
My Mum is in her early 70's and is very passive, it takes an awful lot to wind her up, but she's naturally getting to the end of her tether and feels very let down by a service that she's paid a lot of money into over the years.
After reading through some of the stories that others have shared from their experiences I don't have any confidence that the engineer who examined the boiler even has much of a clue.....I'm not confident that it's in good hands. Several stories where people got so sick of the waiting that they resorted to bringing in a local plumber to get a second opinion, only to find that quite often it was a simple fix that's left the local plumber baffled as to why the SP Engineer would be sending off for these elusive 'parts'
If having the money to call someone in for a second opinion wasn't an obstacle then that's what I'd certainly be doing! I have absolutely no faith in this so called cover, and judging by other peoples stories I can't see it being resolved any time soon.
Well this has turned out to be quite lengthy after all! I had to vent!
Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences? I'd be very interested to hear.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any info/suggestions.

Hi watson1312,

I am really sorry to hear of the poor level of service your mum has experienced.

If possible, can you please email me at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and provide your mums name, full address and the best contact telephone number? I can then get this escalated over to out Homecomfort complaints team who will investigate this and then contact your mum to discuss a resolution.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the frustration and inconvenience caused.

Kind regards
Faye

durbanboy · 14 February 2018 at 10:16PM

Scottish_Power wrote: »

Hi watson1312,

I am really sorry to hear of the poor level of service your mum has experienced.

If possible, can you please email me at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and provide your mums name, full address and the best contact telephone number? I can then get this escalated over to out Homecomfort complaints team who will investigate this and then contact your mum to discuss a resolution.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the frustration and inconvenience caused.

Kind regards
Faye

I tried that and your complaints team never followed up afterv4 weeks and I had to make vontact and was dealt with appallingly. No empathy for my personal situation, so I wouldn't have confidence. watson1312... Apparently their words were to the effect "we treat everybody the same"

glasgowjim376 · 5 December 2018 at 12:20PM

I have just taken out boiler care with Scottish Power. I received my written notification and there was a slight issue wit it. I made a call expecting it to be remedied in 2 minutes.and ended up with four hours wasted out of my day and someone adding a new account. Today I tried again to cancel the contract(s) but they cant at the moment. Its stuck in limbo. Somebody will try to cancel it in a week's time.(how can i trust that this will be done?). The advice they gave me was go to your bank and ask the bank not to pay them? The way I was treated yesterday (I mean spoken to and treated without going into detail here) deserves a serious complaint but the D & G complaints guy does not do complaints he just gives you feedback . One of the problems seems to be that Scottish Power and D & G (who do the maintenance) are separate and have different ways of working or not working to be more precise. I wish i had read this review before taking out a plan. I am trying to cancel my plan (s) (now have 2 plans because of their stupidity) because it is obvious that these people are a nightmare to work with. Spare yourselves the hassle and avoid like the plague..For me the saga continues. I have now taken out a plan with Gassure ,I dealt with one office and it was done in 5 minutes.
Many thanks for your warning.

Grey_Critic · 5 December 2018 at 12:42PM

Put it in writing sent Recorded Delivery. Do not do email they get lost. Recorded Delivery can be tracked and they cannot deny receipt.

bald0ne · 2 May 2019 at 11:55AM

Stupid me thought that rather than searching for an engineer to service my boiler, I'd go with a big company and let them sort it out. Bad idea choosing Scottish Power. I thought that paying extra would be worth the avoided hassle.

First I'm told by the call center (which isn't Scottish Power - they have outsourced it), that another outsourced company will call me to arrange the service. After waiting and waiting I heard nothing. I call back the customer services and they give me the number and tell me to arrange it myself.

After I object, telling them that I paid Scottish Power to arrange it, and if I wanted to arrange it myself I'd use Google and save myself £50. To this I was told that there's nothing more they can do as they're only the call center.

After several phone calls I eventually managed to escalate and got them to do what I'd paid for, and the engineer came around.

The service was done in 8 minutes, as opposed to the 30 minutes my previous services took. I questioned this and the engineer told me "I only get £8 per service, so you only get 8 minutes work". So, I'm paying Scottish Power ~£130 for £8 of actual service time. Great!

I wasn't given a service record, but told it would be in the post. 6 months later I'm still waiting. I call customer services again and they tell me they will ask Scottish Power to send it. If I haven't received in 2 weeks, call Scottish Power.

2 weeks later, nothing. I call Scottish Power, and they tell me "it's nothing to do with us, it's D&G". "But I pay Scottish Power, not D&G", I reply. A few back & fore comments, and they eventually give in and transfer me back to the customer service team I originally called.

Anyway, rant over. Moral of the story...they are rubbish and the vast majority of your fees go into profit and middle-men. I couldn't even cancel the auto-renewal yet, and have to wait until they send a note out in a few months time.

Save your money, go direct to a local trader. Would never, ever, recommend this outfit.

elaine_tomasso · 17 July 2019 at 6:00PM

Boiler cover. What a nightmare. I renewed my cover in December but because I asked for the same price as a new customer would get, £9.75 for 6 months then £19.50 for the next 6 months, I had to wait a month with no cover for it to take effect. So 17/1/19 my cover started and I paid the £9.75. 5/6/19 I received an official letter saying that my contract would start 17/7/19 at £9.75/month for a year. Please note that this letter was unsolicited and I had not spoken to Scottish Power since December. I rubbed my hands in glee and did nothing until today when my direct debit showed a payment of £19.50 to them. Incenced I picked up the phone and spent 40 frustrated minutes talking to 5 different people, all of whom I was referred to by the previous unhelpful operator, and they all said the letter was a mistake and that the original contract was the valid one, although the fifth person told me my contract was cancelled! I said that no one had contacted me to explain this so I expect this new contract to stand. The upshot of it all is that I have a new contract for 12 months at £19.50/month with a refund for half that amount, £117, to be sent to me in the next 3-5 days because their system can't make exceptions. Why do I see another battle looming?

I have already left Scottish Power for fuel over them breaking a promise to me about always putting me on their lowest fuel tariff and the five appointments it took to get smart meters installed so this is the last straw. I'll take the deal this year but never again as they couldn't run a bath.

McPlop · 28 September 2019 at 8:48PM

Scottish Power Boiler Care, or the lack of. I have been with them a few years and last year was at home to see a 'Powder Puff' boiler service take place. The guy was here 15 minutes and stuck a few labels on the gas pipe, squirted some WD40 and then left. When I asked about the apparent lack of opening, cleaning etc. he told me that he had carried out the required service, I should have listened to the alarm bells then. Come this week I found a leak on one of the pipes from the boiler to my hot water cistern where a valve had decided it had had enough and was dripping water. No problem, call out the boiler care. Guy comes out, looks at it and says 'you need a plumber, that's not a part of the cover, goodbye'. I speak to the call centre and they say 'that's correct, the main circulation pipe from your boiler to your central heating system /hot water is not part of your central heating'. News to me because without it the central heating cannot work. They quote some plumbing terms in the T's&C's and that is it, no repair. Useless. If you want this sort of cover then be my guest but if you are looking for re-assurance and peace of mind then look elsewhere. I am going to look up a local company that will do the work and not fob me off. I suggest you try something similar.

victoriaplum1 · 20 February 2020 at 9:44PM

Dreadful service. Currently a week into having only 20 mins of hot water and heating a day due to boiler switching off due to temperature probe damage. Apparently this job has to be authorised with insurance and part ordered. Promises made re call backs and timescale which as yet have come and gone, And when you chase them up there is an astounding lack of concern for leaving customers (with elderly and children in the property) without heating and hot water when they are meant to be providing emergency boiler breakdown service. They simply are not providing emergency service (or decent customer service) but seem q happy to supply excuses. My advice is to avoid them like the plague. You will not get the service you are expecting so don’t be fooled by a company whose name you know. They are outsourcing the work to another company as well so when you call them you are just speaking to a general call centre. And you may as well talk to the wall because when they fail to help you they suggest you call the actual company, direct, yourself. Unbelievable.

ifstar · 21 February 2020 at 1:54AM

Had a similar story to many. Took ages for them to do initial service as they cancelled or didn't show up - alarm bells ringing. Boiler packed in and it was a hassle getting them out. Told me what part it was and how it was probably going to be a write off for the boiler but they'd check if they could source the part. Within 10 min I had found it for under 100 quid but told that it probably wouldn't go ahead.

A few days go by and not heard anything. By this point I've got a quote from a local guy and I decide just to go with him. A few days later, just about to get new boiler installed and they phone and sat part us coming and they'll fit next week. Told them no, getting a new boiler at weekend.

This is where it got interesting, they said that because they'd failed to fix then they would give me 700 towards a new one and it didn't have to be through them. A cheque arrived a few days later.

Terrible service but welcome payout.

Scottish Power - Boiler Care/Cover - AVOID!!!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free